Technical Writing Program Overview: How to Become a Technical Writer
Majors Overview August 23, 2013The Associate of Arts (A.A.) in Technical Communication degree and Associate of Arts in Technical Writing degree are the most common degrees offered by colleges and universities for students who want to enter the technical writing field. Program courses usually help students with improvements on their writing abilities, instruction booklets, composing guidelines, and exploring writing procedures in technical areas. Associate degree programs with emphasis on technical writing will provide students with a foundation to enter a career as an in-house or freelance technical writer.
Program Course Topics
Students will practice writing, revising and correcting, and creating documents on specialized topics through the associate degree program in technical writing. Depending on the colleges and universities, some will assist students in obtaining an internship. Technical writing students discover areas such as:
•Performing online research
•Formatting and preparing technical documents
•Computer graphics and information processing
•Composition of the English language
•Communication essentials
Career Options
There are many types of careers for technical writers to pursue such as:
•Technical communicator
•Information developer
•Engineering writer
•Documentation specialist
•Documentation designer
Continuing Education Information
Associate degree program graduates who want to further their education should consider pursuing a four-year bachelor degree program in technical writing. By taking advanced writing courses, students will be able to expand their knowledge. Students will study topics such as prose, publishing, sentence structure, language rules, and editing. Students who have earned their bachelor’s degree can obtain positions in different areas, such as teaching, performing arts, government, and business.
